AU alumnus named World’s Best Designer in international news design competition
ASHLAND, Ohio – Tyler Remmel ’13 has reached the pinnacle of visual journalism. The former Ashland University student and design editor of the Collegian and current senior product designer for The Washington Post took home the highest individual honor—World’s Best Designer—at the Society for News Design’s annual competition.
A panel of 41 judges from newsrooms and organizations around the world deemed Remmel’s portfolio to be the strongest among the 4,200 entries in the 47th edition of the organization’s Creative Competition, SND47.
From the announcement by SND, the jury described Remmel’s work as “striking and unique, praising its sophisticated typography, excellent use of white space and strong attention to detail.” His ability to excel across many approaches to visual journalism was also noted, “showing restraint, consistency and a clear voice while putting the story first with respect for the subject matter.” One judge even said they “can’t find a single thing that could be done better.”
Remmel’s award-winning portfolio included a variety of work, ranging from months-long enterprise news reporting on the Gaza conflict, Congolese rape survivors and the recruitment of young men by Islamist militants, to a science feature on the Andromeda galaxy, to a sports article on “The Speed Project,” a 340-mile relay from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The portfolio also won a gold medal.
“My print portfolio had five different pieces that I put together over the course of the year,” Remmel explained. “The judges are instructed to look for … a range of different talents that are used … the impact the designer had on this work … and (if) there is continuity through all off the work that they’re contributing.”
Remmel was also quick to emphasize that his co-workers at The Washington Post played a significant role in the award.
“It’s humbling to be named World’s Best Designer, but it’s also a testament to the collaborative spirit within the visual departments (at) the Post,” Remmel said. “I got to work with the best people in the industry to put these pages together. This is an individual award, but I don’t view it as an individual honor.”
Remmel’s path to becoming a leading visual communicator began, in part, at AU. A member of the Honors Program, he enrolled in the Journalism and Digital Media academic program and was a staff member of the Collegian, the student newspaper, gaining both theoretical knowledge and hands-on, practical experience.
Remmel gave credit to AU for being at the forefront of new media education in renaming the journalism department to incorporate digital media when he arrived on campus in 2010.
“The JDM conversion … was really helpful because at the time that was very much in line with where the industry was heading as far as being able to produce journalism across multiple platforms and being comfortable with having that flexible set of skills,” recalled Remmel.
More than anything, Remmel also valued the personal attention he received from faculty, especially the late Matt Tullis.
“(Matt) was hugely instrumental (in my development). A lot of the work I did on the design side was outside of class, mostly for the Collegian. I had optimistically thought, ‘Hey, what if I redesigned the newspaper, is that something you would be interested in?’ and Matt said ‘Yeah, let’s see what you can do.’ And, I became the design editor for a couple of years and got to do a lot of cool stuff that I think was really helpful.”
He continued, “All of my classwork was focused on being able to be a journalist or an editor, so I felt very well equipped by that, and it was nice that I had Matt supporting me and empowering me to continue to explore design as well.”
That helped lead to an internship with Swimming World magazine, a perfect match with one of Remmel’s other passions. While honing his design skills in the College of Arts and Sciences, he was also piling up 10 All-American swimming honors in Messerly Natatorium (he even competed in the 100 breaststroke at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials). He credits both with teaching discipline, attention to detail and the pursuit of excellence.
Those experiences opened the door to his first professional opportunity, joining Gannett’s design studio in Nashville, Tenn., after graduation. He designed print sections and projects for various news sites within the USA Today Network, such as Florida Today and the Detroit Free Press, for six years.
In 2019, he joined The Washington Post where he now serves as senior product designer, leading a team that is building the tools that help support the newsroom designers and their development of interactive projects.
“Essentially what I’ve been working on lately is putting data to the contributions of visual journalism and figuring out what we can do from a story, what lessons we can take from the data from a storytelling perspective as far as what’s resonating with the audiences, what are people spending time with and what are they most likely to interact with,” Remmel explained.
From redesigning the Collegian to shaping some of the nation’s most ambitious visual journalism projects at The Washington Post, the award-winning Remmel has built a career around one guiding principle: helping stories connect with readers.
“(I’m going) to make sure that we continue to position ourselves in a spot moving forward where readers are interested in and willing to engage with those stories that prioritize the visuals, whether those are photos, whether that’s text treatments, whether that’s illustrations and animations, whether that’s graphics,” he said. “Words will never be able to fully capture the stories that people are interested in reading.”
